First Day
by Miss Peppy Red Head
Summary: <html><head></head>I wrote this for my friend Raz, as a present for being a great person over all and working hard so far in the school year It's Nitori Aiichiro's first day back at Samezuka, and the swim team's first meeting together with Ai as Captain.</html>


"Rin-senpai, I had the strangest dream," Nitori yawned, covering his mouth with his gray long-sleeved shirt. He stretched his arm off the side of his bunk, feeling wooden floor instead of air. His eyes snapped open, realizing it wasn't first year and he hadn't roomed with Rin for over a year. Nitori rolled off the bed to lie with his face pressed against the floor. "It wasn't a dream, was it, Momo? I'm really Captain now, huh…" Momo's snores were the only response in their little room. _At least he didn't hear me talking to Rin-senpai- err, to myself._

He turned his face to the small clock Momo had on his desk. It was 5:04, right about when Rin would be passing their door on his way to start his early morning job. "Might as well take a shower, if you aren't going to," he said primarily to himself again. He knew talking to himself was a bad habit; he couldn't help but talk incessantly to Rin, and since they had new room assignments, his didn't have anyone to voice his thoughts to other than himself. It wasn't as if Momo didn't try- he was constantly bugging him, wailing 'Nitori-senpai!' about something or the other. Nitori had a fair amount of patience- putting up with Rin for a year, who wouldn't?- but having different bugs shoved in his face got old quickly.

Nitori had just closed the bathroom door and undressed when he heard his phone ring twice. He shrugged and stepped into the steaming shower; Rin was too busy to call him, and so the call could wait- it was probably only Nagisa wanting to talk about Rei. Nitori remembered when, on the last day of summer break before the school year started, he had seen Nagisa and Rei kissing behind _ITSC Returns _and had quickly been made to promise not to tell Haru, Makoto, Sousuke or even Rin. He blushed thinking of telling Rin something like that; he usually tried to avoid topics of romance around his senpai. Now Nagisa couldn't stop pestering with questions about what he thought Rei would like best for their one month anniversary, or where the nicest place to go to dinner was, or what movie they should see. _I don't even have____a significant other and Hazuki-san keeps asking me for advice._

He dried himself with his light blue towel and got dressed, heading to retrieve his phone from under the pile of English homework. Unconsciously he bit his lip as his eyes scanned over the new message in his inbox. It was from Rin. **Good luck during your first day, Captain Nitori. **He softly smiled, happy that Rin had remembered today was his first day back at school and the team's first official day of training. Nitori quickly responded with a polite thank you and put his phone into his back pocket.

"Momo-kun, wake up!" he climbed a few steps up the side ladder to tickle Momotarou's foot. He made a high-pitched shrieking sound somewhere between a crying child and a pterodactyl screech. "You're going to be late if you don't hurry up, Momo." He jumped softly off the ladder and headed to his first class, humming cheerfully under his breath.

The last bell rung, signaling that the students were finally free, and Nitori rushed to the pool, accidentally bumping into a few lowerclassmen on his way there. He still wasn't able to beat Momo there.

"Nitori-senpai! Could you time me?" Momo rushed to ask him, forgetting that Nitori was the captain now and was in charge of helping everyone not just him.

"Sure, but only after everyone gets here! We have to wait for the new first years, too, in case anyone gets lost." _And then I have to make a speech… _His stomach practically groaned in pain, anxious about his role in leadership. Nitori was never one to take charge- in his opinion, leaders should be someone like Rin, not himself. Yet here he was. He paced back and forth along the side of the pool, shifting his glance between the cold water and the team members drifting in from their classes and into the locker room. Nitori gulped nervously, running through what he was going to say for the fiftieth time that day. Momo glanced over his way and gave him two thumbs up with a perky smile before following some of their classmates to go change.

Nitori checked his phone again; he didn't have any new messages, but looking at the time made everything pass slower. Sixty seconds were a lot longer were a lot longer when he was actually counting them. His phone vibrated in his hands and he jumped in surprise, fumbling with his phone to prevent it from dropping into the water. _Shit, shit, shit. _It clacked to the floor, almost diving into the water. The message indicating that he had a new text flashed on his screen. _Two messages from Matsuoka-senpai in one day? That's pretty strange, for Rin._

** Ai, relax. If I know you, you're stressing out right now, like you usually do. You'll be fine. **Nitori's cheeks flushed, embarrassed and flattered at the same time. Rin had only started calling him Ai in the last year- he always felt closer to him when they referred to each other by their first names.

Nitori put his phone into his jacket pocket, smiling confidently as the team circled around him. "Welcome to Samezuka, first years! Everyone else, it's good to see you all again," Ai relaxed, feeling at ease as he saw all the familiar and comforting faces around him that had been like family the past two years. "I hope you've been training over summer, because this year is going to be intense- we're _going_ to make it to nationals. Together."


End file.
